Friday, January 26, 2018

Russia's New Bill on Regulating Cryptocurrencies

On Thursday, the Russian Finance Ministry has published on its official website a new draft law "On Digital Financial Assets." It is a legislative proposal to strictly regulate cryptocurrencies and ICOs. The main points are:

- all trading to be done only via cryptocurrency exchanges that are registered in Russia.

- cryptocurrencies cannot be used as means of payment for goods or services.They can only be converted into money or other digital assets.

- no anonymity.

- smart contracts will be recognized as being legally binding and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) will be strictly controlled with only businesses registered in Russia allowed to issue them.